Parenting an Autistic Child

Let’s face it, sometimes getting your teenager on board with personal hygiene is like pulling teeth. For some teens, there’s no fuss. And for others? Forget it. With our autistic teenagers, there’s no exception. Except, as we know, sometimes those additional sensory issues can really hinder this area. So how do we, as parents, help our autistic teens? We want them, ultimately, to become more independent with this.  It could be something to work on with visual schedules or with social stories. I like to start with visual schedules and then introduce social stories as needed. How to Teach Personal Hygiene Skills to an Autistic Teenager First, you’ll want to identify which personal hygiene skill to work on. How to help your autistic teenager with…

When it comes to looking for the initial signs of autism in children, we often look for the developmental delays first. And this makes sense, right? Autism, after all, is a developmental disorder. But, what else are we looking for? What else should parents be concerned about? With my daughter, she had a regression in speech.  Other signs to look for include delays in social skills or social signs of autism.  Delayed Social Signs of Autism In addition to some of the other red flags such as speech regression, here are a few of the social signs of autism: This will look different, of course, depending on the age of the child. A toddler, for example, is still very concerned about themselves. The world, in…